How to Bring the Shine Back to the Car Paint Yourself?

Dust, sun, bird droppings, extreme weather conditions, scratches, and general wear and tear, the car paint has to withstand a lot. You can see it at some point, fading and becoming brittle. Therefore you should polish it now and then to rejuvenate the car and maintain the paint’s integrity. Here are some of the best tips to bring the shine back to the car paint yourself.

How Often Should You Polish the Car?

To protect the car paint, it must be cleaned and cared for regularly. In addition to car washing and waxing, polishing is also part of professional paint care. The car must be thoroughly polished at least once a year or when the paintwork is weathered or has scratches.

The Car Must be Clean Before Polishing – How to Polish Car

Before polishing, a thorough car wash is required, preferably by hand, with a delicate soap, a soft sponge and plenty of water. Tangible deposits must be removed from the car’s surface before polishing, otherwise, they will eat their way into the paint and destroy it. A special cleaning clay picks up the dirt easily and cleans the car making it ready for polishing.

Finding the Right Polish

A polish usually contains abrasives that remove small scratches, smoothen the paint and remove roughened paint layers. Finding the right polish is difficult. Incorrect polishes or paint cleaners with strong grains can cause more damage to the paint than treating it. There is also the difference between simple polishes or cleaners and combination products of polish and sealant. They are superfluous if the paint only needs to be sealed once.

Should I Polish by Hand or Machine?

Only those who do professional paintwork with strong surface scratches or flash rust should use polish or grinding paste with a coarse grain. A hand polish is sufficient for good paintwork. With weathered and pale surfaces, on the other hand, often only the polishing machines help. It is not worth buying as the correct handling of a is a matter for the specialist.

A classic mistake in car care is polishing under the blazing sun or just after the paintwork. The water components evaporate quickly and the concentrate bites into the surface causing damage to the paintwork.

Suggested Read: Which Home Remedies are Actually Useful for Car Care?

The Instructions for Polishing a Car – How to Polish Car

Plastic parts often have porous surfaces. If the polish dries there, it can hardly be removed. With the polish, you need to keep a finger’s breadth away from unpainted rubber parts and the cracks in the door. You need to work in parallel to them and do not wipe over them. Masking tape protects the plastic parts from being accidentally coming in contact with the polish, so the polish does not set there.

Polishing by Hand

Soft rags or soft sponges are best to polish the car. Ugly scratches and other damages to the paintwork can be repaired by working in the opposite direction. Circular scratches only disappear with straight polishing. It is done by hand and not with the polishing machine, which can cause further damage.

Polishing cotton is taboo as it quickly sticks together as it absorbs the damp polish which can cause scratches and along with that, you will end up using a lot of polish unnecessarily. The wax preserves the paint but does not make it shine. A solid wax polish lasts longer than a liquid one. A very thin layer is applied over the paint with a cloth, and after short drying time, the remains are picked up.

The weather and washes gradually wear away the preservation. Depending on your daily commute, you would need to wax five to seven times a year. You can recognize well-preserved paintwork by the very fine droplet formation on the surface when it rains.

Polish With the Machine

Polishing with machines, especially with high-speed rotation, is only recommended by experts to experienced users and only when the paint is badly weathered. Otherwise, you can polish through to the primer where the paint film is thin.

Regular Wax Sealing Can Save Polishing

If you regularly polish your car after washing it, you don’t have to polish as much. If the surface does not show any unevenness or scratches, it is usually sufficient to just refresh the seal with a little polish. If you don’t need to, you shouldn’t necessarily polish your car.

Suggested Read: Fogged Windows – This is How You Can Get a Clear View